Financial Analysis interview preparation

The three statements, working capital, ratios, forecasting, variance analysis, costing, capital budgeting, valuation and the modelling and Excel work that fills the day, plus the fit questions about why this seat. Every question is either traced to a named firm from a public candidate report, or tagged at desk level when we could not trace it — we do not invent attributions.

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Question bank

100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them

Questions
100
Traced to a firm
42
Firms
28
Updated
September 2026
Asked at
All firmsMoody's7Bain Capital3State Street3Ares Management2BlackRock2D.E. Shaw2Morgan Stanley2Oaktree Capital Management2S&P Global2Bridgewater Associates1Citadel1Franklin Templeton1Golub Capital1Harris Williams1Houlihan Lokey1J.P. Morgan1Jane Street1Marshall Wace1Millennium Management1Morningstar1PIMCO1Sycamore Partners1Truist Securities1Two Sigma1Vanguard1Wellington Management1Wells Fargo Securities1Wolverine Trading1
Topic
All topicsThree statements9Accounting policy and standards5Working capital and cash7Ratio analysis8Forecasting and budgeting9Variance and management reporting7Unit economics and costing8Capital budgeting7Cost of capital and valuation7Markets and rates5Modelling, Excel and data8Business partnering6Brainteasers and estimation4Fit and career10
Level
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Type
AnyTechnicalCaseBrainteaserMarket viewFit
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  1. 091Tell me about yourself.Fit and careerCorephone / first roundFranklin TempletonGeneralist · San Francisco · 2023

    Say this

    Ninety seconds, three beats: where you are from academically, the two experiences that turned into this interest, and why this specific role is the next step. It is not a biography, it is an argument for why you fit this seat.

    Then walk it

    1. Beat one, one sentence on background: degree, institution, and the one thing about it that is relevant. Commerce at a specific college, with a focus on accounting and costing, not your school or your hometown.
    2. Beat two, the turning point with evidence. A specific internship or project and what it taught you. 'In my FP&A internship I rebuilt the monthly variance pack and found that 40 percent of the margin gap sat in one channel. That is when I realised I liked the part where the number turns into a decision.'
    3. Beat three, the bridge to this role. Name what the seat involves and what you want from it: exposure to the full planning cycle, working with business heads, building the models rather than only reading them.
    4. Then stop. Silence after 90 seconds invites the interviewer to pick a thread, which is exactly what you want, because you have prepared the threads.
    5. The tone matters as much as the content. This is the only question where you control the agenda, so the details you choose determine the next ten minutes. Put in one thing you want to be asked about.
    6. What to leave out: chronology from school, a list of every certification, your family, and any negative reason for leaving your current role. Keep it forward-looking and concrete.

    Where candidates lose it

    Reciting your CV chronologically. It takes four minutes and lands nothing. Three beats, one concrete result, and end with why this role. Practise it aloud, because the unrehearsed version always runs long.

    Expect next

    • Why finance rather than consulting?
    • Which part of that internship did you find hardest?
    • Walk me through your resume in more detail.

    Reported by candidates at Franklin Templeton (Generalist, San Francisco, 2023). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.